Abstract

To the editor: Raskin and Rosenstock (1) suggest that around 25% of patients with diabetes have, as a result of genetic factors, a low risk for diabetic complications, whereas a further 5% may be genetically predisposed to develop these complications even when exposed to only a moderate degree of hyperglycaemia. Methods of distinguishing these groups before the onset of complications are currently not available.

Pedigree data collected as part of a genetic and epidemiologic study of diabetes in northern England (2) suggest that the occurrence of diabetes in family members of insulin-treated patients, irrespective of whether the affected relatives are